The World Wide Web (the “Web”, “WWW”) and electronic mail (“email”) are by far the two most popular uses of the Internet. The Web typically is navigated using a Web browser application, such as Netscape Navigator® (Netscape Communications Corporation, Mountain View, Calif.) or Internet Explorer® (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington). A Web browser typically accesses a Web site that includes a Web server. The Web server stores one or more Web pages or applications that perform an action such as generating a Web page, or both one or more pages and one or more Web applications. Operating a Web server refers to retrieving, displaying, and interacting with one or more Web pages that are normally stored in a Web server. A Web browser is usually used to operate a Web server.
Because of the popularity of the Web and of email, some systems have been invented and implemented that combine properties of both email browsers (e.g., email clients) and Web browsers. For example, email browsers implemented as Web applications and hosted on the WWW have become very popular. Many interactive Web sites transmit email messages upon the occurrence of certain events, such as user registration (a “welcome” message) or shipment of goods. Popular email browser software packages, including Outlook® and Outlook Express® (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington), and Netscape Messenger® (Netscape Communication Corporation, Mountain View, Calif.) have recently implemented the capability to display messages containing hypertext markup language (HTML) code within the email window, allowing email to contain the same rich formatting as the Web, including links to objects such as images that reside in remote Web servers.
Comprehensive systems have been implemented to read and send email using the Web, and the prior art includes systems that use email to assist with the maintenance of a Web site (see for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,835,712 and 5,937,160).
Some systems have provided for operating a computer system through electronic mail. These systems require that the user type text into the body of a reply. The system then attempts to interpret the response. These systems are email-enabled client-server systems, but they do not relate to Web servers (e.g., HTTP servers).
There also have been attempts at operating Web sites other than through a traditional Web browser client, e.g., a telephone. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,392.
Systems also are known for retrieving and viewing Web pages using only email. Arthur Secret of the World Wide Web Consortium (http://www.w3.org) developer an email Web access system called an Agora server. Another system for accessing Web pages by email, GetWeb, was developed by SatelLife (Watertown, Mass., http://www.healthnet.org), an international not-for-profit organization employing satellite, telephone and radio networking technology to serve the health communication and information needs of countries in the developing world. The www4mail system (Adbus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy, http://www.ictp.trieste.it/˜www4mail) includes many of the functionality of the Agora and GetWeb systems. A user sends an email request to a web-by-mail server requesting a particular Web document and the document is returned via email in either text or HTML format. The returned HTML documents are formatted suitably for a text browser. The retrieved Web page is reformatted such that hyperlinks are replaced by a reference numeral or other designation in the main text. The URLs corresponding to the hyperlinks are then listed by reference numeral at the end of the email message containing the returned Web page. For example, if the paragraph included “World Wide Web Consortium” hyperlinked to http://www.w3.org, the Web page returned would be reformatted such that “World Wide Web Consortium” would be replaced by “World Wide Web Consortium [1]” and the returned Web page would have “[1] http://www.w3.org” appended at the end.
Most www4mail systems include all the capabilities of Agora and GetWeb servers. In addition, forms may be retrieved as email attachments to be viewed and filled in on Web browsers.
One prior-art implementation of an email-enabled Web site provides for email messages to be transmitted in response to operations performed by the user on the VWeb site (using a Web browser) or as triggered by calendar or scheduled events. These e mail messages usually contain “hyperlinks” that allow the user to open a Web browser window and visit the Web site with a single mouse operation. Further operations take place directly through the Web site in a Web browser. In the rare instances where HTML forms are transmitted to users and submitted, the system is coded to directly handle the results of the form as it comes in through email.
None of these systems provide for direct operability of a Web page in an email browser or for comprehensive user operation of a Web site using only email. Directly operable means that one or more of the links or form controls is directly and automatically operable as though it were in a Web browser but using email as the transport mechanism, for example by clicking on the link or control, rather than by requiring any cutting or pasting or other manual operations. In addition, these prior-art systems do not provide for mailbrowser environment-specific optimizations to transcode web pages into a format that is most appropriate or convenient to the viewer's email browser environment.
Such a capability would be useful because:                Many users of the Internet spend most of their time disconnected; they download email in bulk, disconnect, and read and respond to messages while offline, and then connect at a later time to transmit their own messages. Such users would gain convenience from the ability to operate Web sites in a similar “mostly disconnected” fashion through email.        Many operations on Web sites require latency in that the user must look up information, consider options, and make decisions. However, the Web is awkward for returning to a partially completed task. By operating a Web site through email, Web tasks, represented by Web pages, can be retained in the email browser's “inbox” until the user is ready to complete the task.        Similarly, email is often used to notify customers or users of an event or decision. The ability to directly operate in the email browser, e.g., to respond directly with email rather than needing to link (“hyperlink”) to a Web site is much more convenient, both because the user may be disconnected at the time of reading the email, but also because it does not require going to the separate “environment” of a Web browser application.        Complex workflow applications could be built to use standard Web and email interfaces simply by building an appropriate Web site and without developing special purpose code for delivery of messages and translation of forms.        